Jack Ingram Drops Playful New ‘Where There’s a Willie,’ Announces New Album

Jack Ingram offers up a swinging ode to country greats Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings in his new tune, "Where There's a Willie." Readers can press play above to listen to Ingram's blues-driven, honky-tonk sound, heavy on the barroom piano and snare drum.

After he connects smoke to fire, a crowd of people to a party and a song to a singer, Ingram follows the trail back even further. Ultimately, Ingram's playful musically sleuthing leads us to the natural habitat of country legends Nelson and Jennings.

In a lyric that puts a Texas twist on the adage, "Where there's a will, there's a way," Ingram shares a lighthearted country in-joke with his listeners. If you can find Nelson, Ingram explains in the song, Jennings is sure to be nearby.

"Where there’s a night, there’s a day / There’s a will there’s a way / Down in Texas we have our own saying / Where there’s a Willie (there’s a Willie) / There’s a Willie (there’s a Willie) / There’s a Waylon," Ingram sings in the chorus.

The song appears on Ingram's forthcoming album Ridin' High ... Again. The project takes its title fromJerry Jeff Walker's 1975 disc Ridin' High, and also shares that record's love of classic country covers. Ingram's 13-track collection includes covers of Guy Clark’s “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” Kris Kristofferson’s “Jesus Was a Capricorn” and Nelson’s “Gotta Get Drunk,” as well as songs by Hayes Carll and others.

Additionally, several new songs on the album were co-written by Ingram along with Jon Randall Stewart, Todd Snider and Miranda Lambert. It includes the 2018 ACM Song of the Year, “Tin Man,” which Ingram co-wrote with Lambert and Stewart for Lambert's The Weight of These Wings album.